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Baptism: restoration and purification for all
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
Most Christians think of baptism as having its origins as a Christian rite. Yet John the Baptist, for whom the rite is named, was most certainly a Jew and was following a well-established Jewish practice.
This important Hebrew act of immersion in water, to signify purification, is given considerable coverage in the four Gospels. Further, it is the opening story in both the books of Mark and John. This is a clear indication of the importance the writers gave to this act of purifying immersion. In fact, that’s where John the Baptist got his name. The Greek word for the act of dunking or dipping is baptizo from which we get the Englishbaptize.
John has another interesting role to play in gospel history. He is one of the few gospel characters mentioned in a non-Biblical source of the period. Josephus, a historian of the time, mentioned John in this way: “… for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 18.5.2).
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